ARLINGTON, Texas — There is Jayden Daniels’ future to consider. Which means there’s the future of the franchise to consider, if this is who the Washington Commanders are going to be this season. If it is, and it’s definitely looking that way, Daniels should not go back on the field any time soon.
This was quick work by a not-great Dallas Cowboys team, coming off a humiliating loss to the Carolina Panthers last week. But they were, from minute one Sunday, a step — two steps, several steps — ahead of Washington, on both sides of the ball. And, the Commanders’ receivers dropped passes. And, Daniels missed open guys. And, the defense gave up more explosive plays, and missed a half-dozen more tackles. And then, Daniels injured his hamstring.
And that should stop Washington’s season in the tracks, because after getting pantsed on national TV, 44-22, by the Cowboys, there’s nothing to be gained by running Daniels out there next Monday night in Kansas City, with no receiving corps, and no defense remotely capable of stopping Patrick Mahomes.
Daniels, in the last month, has injured his left knee and right hamstring. Washington is flirting with disaster if it plays him in Kansas City, against one of the NFL’s best defenses, in an increasingly unlikely wild-card chase.
Sunday, there was no Terry McLaurin, no Deebo Samuel and no Noah Brown, leaving Daniels to throw to rookie Jaylin Lane, second-year man Luke McCaffrey, Chris Moore and Robbie Chosen, who was signed to the practice squad a few weeks ago before being elevated out of desperation Sunday. They paired with a defense that has no answers, and just as many key injuries as the offense. Dorance Armstrong lasted but a few plays Sunday before leaving with a knee injury, yet another D-lineman lost after Deatrich Wise and Javontae Jean-Baptiste. And Washington’s secondary, at present, can’t cover anyone.
“Injuries are not the reason that we lost,” coach Dan Quinn said afterward. “Others may talk about who we did have, and didn’t have today, and I’m here to say, it doesn’t matter who you have, or who is out, when you don’t give ourselves a real chance at it, with the turnover margin, the penalties, the missed tackles and drops. Dallas beat us, and we beat ourselves as well. We’re the ones who got us into the hole, and we’re the same ones who have to dig ourselves out. … We’re not playing to the standard we’ve set.”
I get it. Quinn is supposed to not only say that, but believe it. Because he has to convince his players to believe it, and because the Commanders can’t trade out 20 players for 20 new ones by next Monday. But it’s hard to see how either the scheme or the personnel improves by next week, or over the next 10 games. And thus, it’s hard to see how they can keep Daniels upright much longer, no matter how loud he protests that he’s good to go.
All afternoon, the Cowboys made decisions like they knew they were better coming into the game, and there was nothing Washington could do about it. Dallas won the coin flip before the game. Almost every team defers to the second half, putting their defense on the field to open the game, so their offense will get the ball to start the third quarter. Dallas said to hell with that, and took the opening kickoff. And, promptly, drove 66 yards in five plays for a touchdown, highlighted by a Marshon Lattimore pass interference penalty that set up first-and-goal at the Commanders’ 2.
There was exactly one stretch of complementary football — late in the first quarter, when Percy Butler downed Tress Way’s punt at the Cowboys’ 1, Daron Payne tackled Cowboys back Javonte Williams in the end zone for a safety, and the Commanders drove for a touchdown to go up 8-7. But that was it. The other 55 minutes or so of play were dominated by the Cowboys.
Late in the second quarter, Daniels’ short touchdown run brought the Commanders within 20-15 with 45 seconds left in the half. Somehow, Washington was still it, and would get the ball to start the third quarter. Then, Dallas gave up a sack on first down at its 28, losing seven yards. But, from its own 21, with just 31 seconds left, Dallas called timeout.
Why?
Because the Cowboys knew they could still get whatever they wanted.
So, on second-and-17, Prescott — just like Jalen Hurts did in the NFC Championship Game nine months ago — took a shot downfield, at Lattimore. And the Cowboys’ George Pickens, just like A.J. Brown did in January, ran past Lattimore — and, just like Hurts did, Prescott dropped it in the bucket for 44 yards and a first down. Was Lattimore in bad position? No. Was it a great pass from Dak? Yes. Was there confusion on the coverage? I don’t know. But, you can’t give up that play, in that situation. You just can’t. The Commanders gave up three picks to the Saints for Lattimore and a draft pick, for him to prevent plays like that.
On the next play, Williams broke yet another Commanders tackle at the line of scrimmage, barreled down the field and rumbled 33 yards to the Commanders’ 2 with 15 seconds left. After a Dallas timeout, Prescott found tight end Jake Ferguson, who walled off Mike Sainristil a yard in the end zone, for the back-breaking touchdown.
“Words can’t explain it. I was hot,” Quinn said of the defensive meltdown.
They played another half, but it didn’t matter; this one was a wrap at intermission. All that happened of note afterward was Daniels getting sacked in the third quarter, and fumbling, and grabbing his hammy, and going to the medical tent. Dallas could have, easily, scored 60.
The formula for beating a team when you don’t have any receivers — when your team has run the ball effectively in stretches, and when your opponent’s defense entered the game ranked 31st in the league in rushing yards allowed and 25th in rushing yards per carry allowed — is to run it down their throats. By falling behind on the scoreboard and behind the sticks in the first half, Washington couldn’t run as much as it wanted. But that’s not the same as barely trying to run it at all. Kliff Kingsbury ran the ball on consecutive plays just once in the first half, when the game was still manageable. Yes, the run wasn’t very successful once Dallas started stacking the box, but sticking with a ground-dominant attack would at least have kept Prescott and his lethal receiver duo of CeeDee Lamb (five catches, 110 yards, one touchdown) and Pickens (four catches, 82 yards) on the sidelines longer.
Quinn seemed to acknowledge this afterward.
“We didn’t run the ball as effectively as I thought we could,” Quinn said. “That would have helped us with the play-pass game. We knew there was a specific way for us to go win this game and go into it, whether you’re shorthanded at one spot or another. And when it doesn’t go that way, obviously, it gets frustrating.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser attended Sunday’s game, presumably to get a tour of AT&T Stadium, which has the main feature everyone involved in the Commanders’ stadium saga at the RFK site wants for a new stadium — a covered roof, with open spaces above the end zones to let the air in. Daniels should join the mayor on the sidelines for a while — maybe a good long while the next few weeks — unless the Commanders’ cavalry, somehow, comes riding in over the hill. There’s little point in building a $3.7 billion stadium that opens without him healthy and playing in it.